Developmental funds are one of the most important tools the Cancer Center director has to enhance the Center and meet future goals and initiatives. Throughout its history, ACC has used the funds to recruit and support new investigators during their start-up years, to finance pilot projects by promising young researchers, to initiate new programs and develop new services that support the peer-reviewed research, and provide interim funding to researchers who show promise of obtaining renewed funding. Accordingly, the developmental funds have proven to be highly productive and have been returned many fold in the form of follow-up peer-reviewed funding for investigators and important scientific contributions in cancer research.